More than $ 100 million was used to develop Essential’s first products.

Updated 6:51 PM — Following Bloomberg‘s report, Andy Rubin has since taken to Twitter with the following message: “We always have multiple products in development at the same time and we embrace canceling some in favor of the ones we think will be bigger hits. We are putting all of our efforts towards our future, game-changing products, which include mobile and home products.”

Despite recent successes with Vive and more recently the much-loved U11, HTC is still facing financial difficulties as its revenues have continued to fall for several years. According to sources of Bloomberg, HTC has reached the point of considering strategic business changes including sales or spin-offs of portions of the company.

HTC is said to have been working with and advisor to work on several different options for improving its [Read More…]

Razer is no stranger to smartphones, having bought Nextbit earlier this year. Now reports are saying the company might be building a phone specifically for gamers.

The company already has mobile apps for its services like Cortex as well as a wearable device, so a phone isn’t a stretch. We don’t know if it would be under the Razer or Nextbit name, but the focus on gamers hints at the former.

The company is planning an IPO in Hong Kong around October, [Read More…]

Not all smart locks are created equal. In fact, many aren’t even all that smart.

There are some incredible benefits to home automation, but when it comes to securing your home, it’s important to not simply buy the cheapest thing on the shelf. There’s a lot to these “smart” locks, and not all of them live up to the promises in the packaging.

Here’s a quick look at what you can do to make sure your smart [Read More…]

On March 29 Samsung is expected to announced the greatly anticipated Galaxy S8 flagship. The heavily rumored phone will come with tons of interesting, new features like the virtual assistant Bixby or the DeX desktop dock accessory. But it seems the rumor mill has been saving the best for last. According to a new report […]

Just like last year, the rumor mill is churning over the possibility of Samsung including a pressure-sensitive display (like Apple’s 3D Touch) in its upcoming flagship phone. This time the source of the speculation is Korean outlet The Investor, which has been coughing up Galaxy S8 rumors for the past couple of weeks, citing “multiple industry sources.”

It’s no surprise that Samsung is aiming to use its own ecosystem rather than Google’s. Samsung used Android to boost itself to the top of the market, competing with Apple and leaving every other brand behind (at least in the US). The company has its own Android skin, its own apps that can replace Google’s, its own app store, and its own services.

Samsung also has everything to break its reliance with Google, even its own operating system. The company has tested Tizen’s [Read More…]

An update to Android 6.0 has given the Moto X Play — the global version of the Droid Maxx 2 — a much-needed performance boost.

The Moto X Play was kind of a mess at launch. And our original review, published in late August, wasn’t entirely positive. The Play — the international version of Verizon’s Droid Maxx 2 — had an enormous battery, correspondingly impressive longevity, and a surprisingly good camera for the price. But it [Read More…]

The reasons to not try Project Fi are diminished or gone completely, but there are still a few big restrictions.

When Project Fi first launched, invites were hard to come by and it was restricted to just the original Nexus 6 — both things that made it tough to consider for many people. Now that Google is rolling out invites at a faster clip (even recently opening the service to everyone for one day), and you [Read More…]